week five tuesday

Today I have no pictures. But we had the most amazing experience so far to date. We got to visit the excavations of St. Peter's grave under St. Peter's Basilica. Some estimates are that 10,000 pilgrims visit St. Peter's square/church/museums every day. Only two hundred tickets are available each day to visit the excavation site. A unique and special opportunity. The excavations were begun in secret in 1939 by Pope Pious XII. They continued throughout WWII in secret. In 1949 the excavations were made public. They found bone fragments that were confirmed as a large male. approximately 60-70 years of age. This is the estimated age of St. Peter upon his death. This was unusual in itself because life expectancy for most Romans of the time was around forty years of age. Secondly, while bone fragments were discovered for all parts of the body, there were no bone fragments of the feet. The assumption was that since St. Peter was crucified upside down, at his request, they merely removed his body from the cross by chopping off his feet. The grave was also perfectly centered under the altar of the original Basilica built by Constantine around 400AD. The current Basilica was built over the same site with the altar directly over the site of the previous altar. The other great thing about the visit was the opportunity to visit the tombs of previous popes without having to stand in a line all day. I especially appreciated the quiet, simple tomb of Pope John Paul II.